Quote:It looked like game over Wednesday morning for the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Instead, a protracted fight over whether the city will give ESPN $300,000 to keep it at the Cotton Bowl for two more years has gone into overtime.

Mayor Mike Rawlings said that under normal circumstances, he believes the council would have overwhelmingly approved the incentives — a marked reduction from the $800,000 the council rejected back in March. But because of city guidelines concerning private-public economic development dollars, Wednesday's vote required approval from three-quarters of the 15-member council.

Before council kicked the vote to Sept. 12, four members of the council said they were going to vote against giving the network any money. Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway was absent.

Quote:Kevin Felder, Scott Griggs, Philip Kingston and Omar Narvaez made it clear they were decidedly against giving taxpayer dollars to ESPN. North Oak Cliff's Griggs called it "corporate welfare." Downtown's Kingston said the game — which pits low-ranked teams from the Conference USA, Big Ten and Big 12 — is a "crime against the bowl system."

Winters said after the meeting "there will still be a game at the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 26 regardless." But a 2019 game is unlikely.

"There is the option of looking at other facilities," he said, "but we're so far into the year right now, hopefully we'll continue to play here."

Monica Paul, executive director of the Dallas Sports Commission, said she has been talking with ESPN about getting better teams in the future — which would mean higher attendance and better ratings. But she said in an interview she's concerned that if the council votes against the incentive, ESPN will simply take the game elsewhere — like Austin, which wants a bowl game.

(08-08-2018 07:24 PM)BlueRaiderBoy Wrote: Not to show my stupidity (any more than usual); but if CUSA is not guaranteed a spot in HOD at least every other year why do we care if Dallas has this Bowl game?

(08-08-2018 07:24 PM)BlueRaiderBoy Wrote: Not to show my stupidity (any more than usual); but if CUSA is not guaranteed a spot in HOD at least every other year why do we care if Dallas has this Bowl game?

It’s our only chance to get a P5 opponent...other than our secondary Indy Bowl tie-in. If we lose HOD we won’t get another P5 opponent.

So. We have a contractual tie in to have a team in the HOD in alternating years? If so, I hope we keep it. But we need to play somebody other than Army ( i.e. UNT vs. Army, 2016) if we are going to play the Cartel-5.

The fewer overall bowls there are, the less chance a G5 with a good record has of going. Even a lower tier bowl will take a 6-6 ACC team over a 8-4 CUSA squad. Its in the G5s best interest to have as many bowls as possible.

This is not a good look for the HOD or for us. When we entered CUSA in 2013 the HOD was discussed as the our answer to the NOLA Bowl or the Las Vegas Bowl where the CUSA Champion played and a lot of hooplah was built up around it. Instead it turned into a bargaining chip that was often tossed around like it meant nothing to us. I hate the fact that this is going down the way it is. I had an absolute blast at the HOD in 2014 against Illinois.

I'd love for the HOD to move to Denton, but ESPN will place the bowl on the open market and try to squeeze as much money out of a city as they can. Denton won't outbid a city like Austin that has been begging for a bowl.

C-USA never should have sold the HOD to ESPN. In my opinion, conferences should co-own bowls, then the ties would be set. Then networks could bid for broadcasting rights every 3-5 years.

ESPN owns a disproportionate amount of bowl games, and has too much influence on college football. That monopoly should be stopped.

(08-08-2018 06:44 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote: But then the Myrtle Beach and Wrigley Bowl are both starting year after next.

Didn't the Wrigley Bowl fold before it even got started?

It's been back and forth, but if it isn't Wrigley, it'll be somewhere else. I don't think we're that close to seeing fewer bowl games, despite the handwringing about number of bowls and far flung or underwhelming locations amongst some fans.

(08-08-2018 06:44 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote: But then the Myrtle Beach and Wrigley Bowl are both starting year after next.

Didn't the Wrigley Bowl fold before it even got started?

It's been back and forth, but if it isn't Wrigley, it'll be somewhere else. I don't think we're that close to seeing fewer bowl games, despite the handwringing about number of bowls and far flung or underwhelming locations amongst some fans.